Personal, professional estate planning across Paddock Wood and the surrounding villages — at your kitchen table, on your schedule.
Paddock Wood is a growing commuter town on the Tonbridge–Ashford railway line, surrounded by hop-growing villages of the north Weald. From my base I regularly visit clients in Yalding, Horsmonden, Brenchley, and Five Oak Green. Home visits to all of these are included in the quoted price — there's no extra travel charge for the smaller villages.
I'm Emma Wrigley — a law graduate with over 20 years in the legal sector — and I set up Kent Legacy Planning because estate planning should fit around your life, not the other way around. The conversations I have with clients are usually held over a cup of tea at the kitchen table, on an evening or weekend if that's what works, with no office visits and no rushed appointments.
All prices include home visits across Paddock Wood and the surrounding villages.
From £225
A professionally drafted will that clearly expresses your wishes, protects your assets, and provides for your loved ones with legal certainty. Includes a free phone consultation, a home visit for detailed instructions, careful drafting tailored to your circumstances, and a signing appointment at your home with proper witnessing.
£350
Coordinated wills for partners that reflect shared wishes while accounting for individual circumstances. One phone consultation, a home visit for joint instructions, two complete wills, and a signing appointment at your kitchen table.
£275 per document
Ensure trusted people can make important decisions on your behalf for health, welfare, and financial matters if you're ever unable to. I guide you through every step including registration with the Office of the Public Guardian. OPG registration fee of £92 per document is payable separately.
Free with will / £85 standalone
A personal document to guide your executors on matters close to your heart — funeral preferences, personal bequests, and messages to loved ones. Included free with every will, or £85 as a standalone document.
£595 per couple
Protect your share of the family home while ensuring your partner can continue living there — safeguarding assets for future generations. Includes severance of joint tenancy so your property is properly structured for the trust to work.
1.5% of estate value
Practical, compassionate help administering an estate after a loved one has died. I handle the paperwork — applying for the Grant of Probate, valuing assets, dealing with banks and HMRC, settling liabilities, and distributing the estate to the beneficiaries — so the family doesn't have to. Transparent percentage pricing, far below typical solicitor rates. Probate Registry fees are payable separately.
A recent client near Paddock Wood
“Emma came out to us in Brenchley one evening after the children were in bed and walked us both through mirror wills and guardianship in plain English. She was patient, thorough, and made what felt like a daunting conversation surprisingly straightforward over a pot of tea.”
For young families across Paddock Wood, Yalding, Horsmonden and the surrounding villages, a pair of mirror wills is usually the single most important piece of paperwork standing between today and a worst-case scenario most of us would rather not think about. The town’s demographic is unmistakable from the school run: commuting couples in their thirties and forties, one or both parents travelling into London or Tonbridge, a mortgage on a Victorian terrace or a newer build off the Maidstone Road, and one or two children still at primary age.
Mirror wills are two coordinated wills — one for each partner — that mirror each other’s wishes. In most cases everything passes to the surviving partner, and then on to the children once both parents have gone. The detail that matters more than the headline structure is what happens to the children themselves. Your will is the legal place to appoint guardians, and without that appointment, the decision falls to the courts. For most of my Paddock Wood clients, getting that clause right is the reason they finally pick up the phone.
The fee is £350 for the couple, which covers a free initial phone call, a home visit for instructions, two coordinated wills carefully drafted around your circumstances, and a signing appointment at your kitchen table with proper witnessing. There’s no charge for the home visit or for travel out to any of the villages in the Paddock Wood catchment. Letters of wishes — the place to record more personal guidance for guardians and executors, including funeral preferences and messages to your children — are included free with every will. If you’d like to talk things through before committing to anything, the first phone conversation is always at no cost.
I cover Paddock Wood itself along with Yalding, Horsmonden, Brenchley and Five Oak Green — the hop-growing villages that look to Paddock Wood as their nearest population centre. Home visits to any of these are included in the quoted price; there's no extra charge for the smaller villages or for travel time. If you're in a hamlet I haven't named here but you think of Paddock Wood as your local town, please ask — the catchment lines are practical rather than rigid and I'd rather come to you than have you drive.
Mirror wills matter most when there are young children involved, because the will is where you appoint legal guardians. Without one, that decision falls to the courts. Paddock Wood is full of commuting couples in their thirties and forties, often with one partner travelling daily to London — exactly the demographic where something happening to both parents is the unthinkable but important scenario to plan for. Mirror wills at £350 the pair cover both of you, name guardians, ringfence assets for the children until an age you choose, and appoint executors you trust.
Yes — I work seven days a week and the bulk of my Paddock Wood appointments are evenings and weekends, because most of my clients here are working couples with school-age children. There's no extra charge for out-of-hours visits. A typical pattern is an initial Saturday morning meeting around the kitchen table once the children have settled, then a follow-up signing appointment one evening a couple of weeks later when the drafts are ready to review and sign. If a daytime visit suits you better that's no problem either — I'll work around whatever fits your week.
Inside your will you name one or more people as guardians for any children under 18. If both parents died, those guardians would step into the day-to-day parental role. The will sits alongside a trust — usually until the children reach 18, 21 or 25, depending on what you decide — so the money is held and managed by trustees for the children's benefit rather than handed over as a lump sum. Guardians and trustees can be the same people or different; many couples around Paddock Wood prefer to separate the two so that one person isn't carrying every decision alone.
Of course — quite a lot of my Paddock Wood work begins with an adult child getting in touch on a parent's behalf. I'm happy to visit your parents at home in Yalding, Horsmonden or anywhere in the catchment, and family members are very welcome to be present for the conversation if that helps. For older clients I'll always take time to make sure they understand each document and are making decisions freely; the home setting tends to make that much easier than a formal office would.
Most couples around Paddock Wood choose the Complete Peace of Mind Package at £1,195 — mirror wills, both types of LPA for both partners, and letters of wishes. That's six professionally drafted documents in one process. OPG registration fees (£368 for four LPAs) are payable separately to the government.
